


The Many Deaths of Magnus Burnsides.

by flashwitch



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Gen, Lucretia centric, The Stolen Century, The Suffering Game, reunion tour, set after Tres Horny Boys return from The Suffering Game
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-20
Updated: 2017-08-20
Packaged: 2018-12-17 18:15:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 647
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11856966
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flashwitch/pseuds/flashwitch
Summary: Lucretia has just been told that one of her good friends is dead.





	The Many Deaths of Magnus Burnsides.

**Author's Note:**

> Kravitz: Magnus Burnsides. You've died...19 times!
> 
> Magnus: That doesn't sound right!
> 
> \- The Crystal Kingdom, Episode Ten.

 

It wasn’t the first time Magnus had died.

He had died more than Taako, less than Merle. Lucretia thought maybe he’d tied with Lup. It was hard to remember all the deaths after a hundred years. Especially the deaths seconds before they recycled. Did those even count? It was hard to hold them in her head. And her head was the only place they were held.

She didn’t have the others memories to rely on. She wasn’t complaining. She had made her decision and she would take the consequences. But it was harder to remember things when no one else was there to say ‘no, that’s not what happened,’ or ‘and then he got up, remember?’

Magnus wouldn’t be coming back this time. This was his last death. Something worth remembering.

 Or. Well. She could get him back.

She could let them drink. Get them all on the ship. Let The Hunger come. Recycle.

Magnus would be back. They would all be back.

He didn’t have to stay dead.

 

* * *

 

 

She would be lying if she said she didn’t think about it.

 

* * *

 

It would be easy.

 

* * *

 

She tallied the deaths up later. This was his twentieth, she thought. Lucky number twenty. How old was he? She had lost track at some point. Age was complicated when you were reset again and again.

What was the first death? Surely she could remember that.

She remembered some of them better than others. The ones that hurt, the ones that were more senseless than usual.

She remembered him dying for some stupid hard candy. The idiot. She remembered him bleeding out in a Hunger attack. She remembered a fever, him crying for his mother, his skin burning. She’d died that round as well, caught in the same fevered dreams.

She remembered Taako and Lup carried his body back once, calling for help, not realising Magnus had died along the way.

 

* * *

 

 

Taako had said once that only the seven of them mattered, everyone else was just dust. Magnus was dust now. Not enough of his body to bring back.

 

* * *

 

He died never knowing what she did. She can’t tell him. She will never be able to tell him. He will never remember training with the bear. He will never remember eating macaroons baked by Taako while Merle told some story to make them all laugh or placing bets on when Barry and Lup would finally get together. He will never remember standing at Davenport’s side, following his lead.

He will never remember the world they lost. The _worlds_ they lost.

She isn’t sure if that is a blessing of a curse.

 

* * *

 

 

She has already lost Barry. Lost Lup. She can stand to lose one more. It hurts, gods does it hurt, but are their lives worth more than any other? Should she put them above this entire world?

She wants to.

She needs to.

She can’t.

They’re _so close._ Her plan is working.

 

* * *

 

Magnus wouldn’t want her to stop. Out of all of them, she had always thought that it would be him who would understand in the end. He would listen to what she did and he would _get it._ He was like that. He understood things.

He liked to say he was the muscle. That he was the big dumb back up. And yes, he didn’t have as much book learning as the rest of them, he couldn’t calculate equations or figure out quantum physics. At least, he couldn’t back at the beginning. Over the hundred years between then and now he had picking things up, just by watching, just by listening. They’d be talking, planning, and then Magnus would interject something insightful and everything would come together.

He understood things. He couldn’t always explain the things he understood, but he did understand.

If she’d had time…

But she didn’t

She had made her decision. She would face the consequences.

* * *

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> My fic tumblr: flashwitch.tumblr.com  
> My main tumblr: nonsenseandstuff.tumblr.com  
> come say hi!


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